# 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship

The 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship will be the 23rd edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship, contested by the men's national teams under the age of 21 of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. It will be held in China from 21 to 31 August 2025.
Starting with this edition, the tournament will be expanded to include 24 teams instead of the 16 teams of previous editions, following the decision adopted by FIVB in June 2023.

## Host selection

On 28 March 2024, FIVB opened the bidding process for member associations whose countries were interested in hosting one of the four Age Group World Championships in 2025 (i.e., U19 Boys' and Girls' World Championships and U21 Men's and Women's World Championships). The expression of interest of the member associations had to be submitted to FIVB by 30 April 2024, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2).
On 10 September 2024, FIVB announced that China was selected as the host for the 2024 Boys' U21 World Championship.

## Qualification

A total of 24 national teams will qualify for the final tournament. In addition to the host team and the defending champions who qualified automatically, 20 other teams will qualify through five separate continental competitions which were required to be held no later than 31 December 2024. Two remaining teams will enter the tournament via the Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking (as of 31 December 2024) among the teams not yet qualified.
The slot allocation per confederation was set as follows:
* Defending champion (Iran): 1
* AVC (Asia & Oceania): 4
* CAVB (Africa): 3
* CEV (Europe): 6
* CSV (South America): 3
* NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean): 4
* Host: 1
* Top teams not yet qualified as per Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking: 2
| Confederation | Qualifying tournament | Team qualified | Appearances | Appearances | Appearances | Previous best performance |
| Confederation | Qualifying tournament | Team qualified | Total | First | Last | Previous best performance |
| AVC (Asia & Oceania) | Host nation | China | 17th | 1977 | 2019 | Runners-up (1977) |
| AVC (Asia & Oceania) | Defending champions | Iran | 15th | 1993 | 2023 | Champions (2019, 2023) |
| AVC (Asia & Oceania) | 2024 Asian Men's U20 Championship ( Surabaya, 23–30 July) | South Korea | 14th | 1977 | 2019 | Champions (1987) |
| AVC (Asia & Oceania) | 2024 Asian Men's U20 Championship ( Surabaya, 23–30 July) | Japan | 14th | 1977 | 2017 | Runners-up (1989) |
| AVC (Asia & Oceania) | 2024 Asian Men's U20 Championship ( Surabaya, 23–30 July) | Indonesia | 2nd | 1989 | 1989 | Fifteenth (1989) |
| AVC (Asia & Oceania) | 2024 Asian Men's U20 Championship ( Surabaya, 23–30 July) | Kazakhstan | 1st | Debut | Debut | None |
| AVC (Asia & Oceania) | Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking | Thailand | 4th | 1999 | 2023 | Eighth place (2023) |
| CAVB (Africa) | 2024 Men's U20 African Nations Championship ( Tunis, 5–10 August) | Tunisia | 14th | 1985 | 2023 | Ninth place (1999, 2005) |
| CAVB (Africa) | 2024 Men's U20 African Nations Championship ( Tunis, 5–10 August) | Egypt | 15th | 1981 | 2023 | Ninth place (2003, 2023) |
| CAVB (Africa) | 2024 Men's U20 African Nations Championship ( Tunis, 5–10 August) | Morocco | 8th | 1999 | 2021 | Ninth place (2005) |
| CEV (Europe) | 2024 Men's U20 European Championship ( Vrnjačka Banja and Arta, 26 August–7 September) | France | 7th | 1985 | 2015 | Runners-up (1999) |
| CEV (Europe) | 2024 Men's U20 European Championship ( Vrnjačka Banja and Arta, 26 August–7 September) | Czech Republic | 7th | 1991 | 2023 | Third place (1993) |
| CEV (Europe) | 2024 Men's U20 European Championship ( Vrnjačka Banja and Arta, 26 August–7 September) | Bulgaria | 11th | 1985 | 2023 | Champions (1991) |
| CEV (Europe) | 2024 Men's U20 European Championship ( Vrnjačka Banja and Arta, 26 August–7 September) | Italy | 17th | 1985 | 2023 | Champions (2021) |
| CEV (Europe) | 2024 Men's U20 European Championship ( Vrnjačka Banja and Arta, 26 August–7 September) | Ukraine | 4th | 1999 | 2017 | Ninth place (1999) |
| CEV (Europe) | 2024 Men's U20 European Championship ( Vrnjačka Banja and Arta, 26 August–7 September) | Turkey | 4th | 2013 | 2017 | Sixth place (2013, 2015) |
| CEV (Europe) | Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking | Poland | 13th | 1989 | 2023 | Champions (1997, 2003, 2017) |
| CSV (South America) | 2024 Men's U21 South American Championship ( Callao, 30 October–3 November) | Brazil | 23rd | 1977 | 2023 | Champions (1993, 2001, 2007, 2009) |
| CSV (South America) | 2024 Men's U21 South American Championship ( Callao, 30 October–3 November) | Colombia | 2nd | 1977 | 1977 | Eighth place (1977) |
| CSV (South America) | 2024 Men's U21 South American Championship ( Callao, 30 October–3 November) | Argentina | 18th | 1977 | 2023 | Runners-up (2011, 2015) |
| NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean) | 2024 Men's U21 NORCECA Championship ( Nogales, 9–17 June) | United States | 11th | 1977 | 2023 | Fourth place (2011) |
| NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean) | 2024 Men's U21 NORCECA Championship ( Nogales, 9–17 June) | Canada | 14th | 1977 | 2023 | Fifth place (1999) |
| NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean) | 2024 Men's U21 NORCECA Championship ( Nogales, 9–17 June) | Cuba | 15th | 1981 | 2021 | Runners-up (1987, 2009, 2017) |
| NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean) | 2024 Men's U21 NORCECA Championship ( Nogales, 9–17 June) | Puerto Rico | 6th | 1989 | 2019 | Ninth place (1997) |
* ↑ Competed as Czechoslovakia in 1991 and 1993; 4 appearances as Czech Republic.

## Competition formula changes

In June 2023 during a three-day meeting in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, the FIVB Board of Administration approved the proposal made by its Volleyball Council to increase the number of participating teams to 24 in its Age Group World Championships (U19 and U21 in both genders). Consequently, the distribution of quotas by confederation for the Women's U21 World Championship was modified regarding previous editions, ensuring one automatic quota for the defending champion and assigning two quotas based on the corresponding FIVB Age Group World Ranking.
The new competition formula was in line with the one adopted for the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship, which was also contested by 24 teams.

## Pools composition
### Draw

The draw for the pools composition will held on 4 December 2024 at the FIVB headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The 24 participating teams will be split into four single round-robin pools of six with the host nations and the reigning world champions receiving the highest seeds. The rest of the qualified teams are seeded in a serpentine system based on their positions in the respective FIVB World Rankings.
Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking of each team as of 4 November 2024 are shown in brackets, except the hosts China who ranked 66th.
| Seeded teams | Seeded teams | Teams to be drawn | Teams to be drawn | Teams to be drawn | Teams to be drawn | Teams to be drawn | Teams to be drawn |
| Line 1 | Line 2 | Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| China (Hosts, assigned to A1) Iran (1), assigned to B1 Bulgaria (2), assigned to C1 Italy (3), assigned to D1 | Argentina (4), assigned to D2 Brazil (5), assigned to C2 Poland (6), assigned to B2 Egypt (7), assigned to A2 | Canada (8) United States (9) Czech Republic (10) Tunisia (12) | Thailand (13) France (13) South Korea (15) Colombia (15) | Morocco (18) Japan (18) Ukraine (20) Puerto Rico (20) | Indonesia (20) Kazakhstan (26) Turkey (29) Cuba (66) |
The draw procedure also followed the serpentine system and was as follows:
* Teams from pot 4 were drawn first and were placed in line 6 of each pool starting from pool D to pool A.
* Teams from pot 3 were then drawn and placed in line 5 of each pool starting from pool A to pool D.
* Teams from pot 2 were then drawn and were placed in line 4 of each pool starting from pool D to pool A.
* Teams from pot 1 were then drawn and placed in line 3 of each pool starting from pool A to pool D.
The pools composition after the draw was as follow:
Pool A :
| Pool A PosTeam A1 China A2 Egypt A3 United States A4 Thailand A5 Morocco A6 Turkey | Pool B PosTeam B1 Iran B2 Poland B3 Canada B4 South Korea B5 Puerto Rico B6 Kazakhstan | Pool C PosTeam C1 Bulgaria C2 Brazil C3 Czech Republic C4 Colombia C5 Japan C6 Cuba | Pool D PosTeam D1 Italy D2 Argentina D3 Tunisia D4 France D5 Ukraine D6 Indonesia |

## Format

According to the new competition format, the top four teams from the final standings in each pool will advance to the eighthfinals, while the remaining two will continue their participation in the playoffs for the distribution of the places from 17th to 24th.

## Preliminary round

* All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00)

### Pool A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | China (H) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 2 | Egypt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 3 | United States | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 4 | Thailand | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 5 | Morocco | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 17–24 places |
| 6 | Turkey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 17–24 places |

### Pool B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | Iran | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 2 | Poland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 3 | Canada | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 4 | South Korea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 5 | Puerto Rico | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 17–24 places |
| 6 | Kazakhstan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 17–24 places |

### Pool C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | Bulgaria | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 2 | Brazil | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 3 | Czech Republic | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 4 | Colombia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 5 | Japan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 17–24 places |
| 6 | Cuba | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 17–24 places |

### Pool D

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | Italy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 2 | Argentina | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 3 | Tunisia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 4 | France | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | Round of 16 |
| 5 | Ukraine | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 17–24 places |
| 6 | Indonesia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 17–24 places |